Spring is well and truly upon us here at Steep Marsh and the Hampshire countryside is coming alive before our very eyes.
Our offices are set in a rather splendid part of the country and we are lucky enough to be surrounded by acre upon acre of rolling pasture, farmland and some pretty wild woods.
The name of our home estate, The Brickyard hints at an industrial past of course and alongside the bucolic delights we have a number of fine old buildings to admire, now home to various artisan producers, including a couple of catering companies that torment us throughout the day with delicious smells.
We will be talking more about our near neighbours in future views from the marsh but for now we will just say that we love the fact that within a couple of hundred yards (not metres, this is the countryside), we have a blacksmith, an oast house and a dog grooming parlour that only seems to cater for adorable looking puppies.
Steep Marsh itself lies about 2 miles north of the market town of Petersfield, just off the A3, the main arterial route from London to the south coast, a road that we are close enough to benefit from but just far away enough to avoid the noise.
Whilst we are talking about the countryside, the actors that play Joe Grundy and Brian Aldridge in The Archers both reside nearby, so even though Ambridge is quite a few miles to the north we do have claim to a couple of ‘everyday farming folk’.
It’s raining today, but that’s fine. The sun will be shining soon and we will have plenty more to look at on our lunchtime strolls with the dogs…we will tell you all about that next time.